Pre-election boom gives Osborne room for £7bn tax cuts

BRITAIN’S economy will be nearly 2% bigger than at its pre-crisis peak by next
year’s election, giving the chancellor scope for up to £7bn of tax cuts, a
report is expected to say.

The latest forecasts from the respected Centre for Economics and Business
Research (CEBR), released tomorrow, are likely to give the government
another boost after a week in which earnings matched inflation for the first
time in four years.

The consultancy is expected to say that when the country heads to the polls in
May next year, real (after inflation) household disposable incomes will be
4% higher than at the last election. Also, GDP will be 9% higher and house
prices will be 16% above their 2010 levels.

“The chancellor has proved a master of the timing of electoral economics and
most of the data looks likely to present a feel-good factor,” said Douglas
McWilliams, head of the